Eboone I'm in 6a too. Here in MI one commercial grower grows pluots. They can be grown here. Maybe not all. But I have a 4N1 tree with FK, FQ, FS, and DD. I don't have any other pollinators so they are going to have to pollinate each other. And they do BTW. I don't really see a problem, they are just plums as far as I'm concerned, which originate from areas just like ours. I even think we can produce better fruits. I can't speak for PA but MI is a great place for blueberries, peaches, cherries, grapes and plums. Our fruits taste great! Our wines are starting to beat CA wines in competitions. (we are at the same latitude as Bordeaux, France)They are major crops for us. We don't have the humidity the Northeast has, yet we have 90 degree days all the time. Conditions are far from perfect, but are very acceptable. None of the experienced growers here are from my area, so I do appreciate the input, but they have worse conditions than I do. If they were here, they might have a different opinion. This year we had a lot of rain, and I planted the bare root this year. it is growing like gangbusters, so the tree doesn't seem to mind, and most years we have a lot less rain, so the first hurtle and the most serious was cleared by a mile. No fungal diseases on any of the trees. It's a darn good sign! Late frosts are another concern, but they are super rare here. We had one in 2012, the first one in a decade. So I doubt I will see another anytime soon. Otherwise we have sunny days with the humidity in the 60 percentile, with average temps around 80 degrees. They should thrive here. The high chill hours should ensure a great fruit set. I will be adding more flowers to attract bees, but I already have many. I see over 50 bees a day currently. Sometimes as many as 200. I have a dog that patrols the yards for fruit thieves. he is so good at it that none of my fruit is protected and all I lost was one strawberry out of hundreds produced. Not one other fruit was touched. Blueberries, raspberries, currants, and blackberries were left untouched. The pluot grafted tree has grown so much it's first year I expect some fruit next year, I will leave a few on it, but not many. It has been summer pruned twice this year. And certainly needs winter pruning now too. This post was edited by Drew51 on Thu, Aug 15, 13 at 20:34

Since wisteria has been recommended, you need to know that the support structure/arbor/pergola needs to be really stout - 4"x4" supports won't suffice. They also tend to seed around, send out underground shoots, and tend to need a fairly large amount of pruning, so if you plant one be aware that it may be a good amount of work. Grown within reach of a building they may lift shingles. Check out Boston ivy/Parthenocissus tricuspidata or Virginia creeper, both of which may also need a fair amount of trimming, but IME don't tend to seed around as aggressively as wisteria. Either will need a flat surface (such as the side of a 6'x6") to climb so if your pergola is metal, it may have difficulty gripping. WoodsTea's suggestion of Aristolochia is also a good suggestion. It grows by twining and so would do better on a narrow support.

Carol, I had to chuckle about how enthused we are compared to the beekeeper lol! I'd bee like ooooo-oooo, I gotta seeeeeee! O.k. Carol, I do disagree a tiny bit with your apiarist. He was saying "board it up in the fall". I say no need to do this. From all the research I've read, bumblebees never reuse an old nest and rebuild one from scratch every year. An old nest tends to just fall away and disintegrate. Carol there are several clues on how to tell a bumblebee from a honeybee. A bumble bee has far less "abdomen" (honeybee's abdomen is much more elongated). A bumblebee tends to be very bulky and tumbles and bumbles around in its flight pattern, whereas a honey bee zeroes in cleaner flight patterns. Bumblebees have far less stripes as well. They also have a heavier thorax (the mid-section). It's very easy to tell a honeybee apart from a bumblebee, but some solitary bees can look a little bit closer to a bumblebee. If that bee looks fuzzy, it isn't a wasp for sure! Wasps have very hard shells and "loud" patterns on their stripes (too much contrast)or very odd protrusive body divisions. They look pretty yucky, lol! and a wasp isn't going to have pollen smeared saddlebags either, that's for sure, lol! Wasp legs tend to be very angular and yucky! I have full confidence in you! I'm sure you did not! mistake a wasp for a bee!

Your right Roselee. We were priveledged to see it! Of course you should have seen my oldest daughters eyes roll when I told her to come look at the bee. Geez, Mom, you want us to look at ANOTHER bug? LOL. She has gotten to that age where she is almost too hip to watch bugs. Of course, once she started watching it, she thought it was pretty cool. We are currently watching a black swallowtail caterpillar. It's a full grown catepillar now and we feel like it won't be long before it goes into it's pupa stage. My only regret is that my camera was broken a couple months ago! Rebecca